Raffling for Oranges at Newark

A Newark correspondent wrote to Hone in 1825 of a custom he had never heard of elsewhere. On 30 January and on Shrove Tuesday stalls were set up in the market-place selling nothing but oranges, which were seldom bought outright but raffled for. Each halfpenny staked bought a share, a numbered ball with twenty-six sides was dropped down a turning chute onto a ledged board, and the highest number took oranges to the value of all the money down. The raffling went on at home and in the inns until late at night.